Present and future high capacity printing systems support high volume document production for commercial and printing center operations, with a wide range of input and finishing configurations. Further, operators are provided with many job programming options and selections in order to maintain an efficient usage of these printing systems.
In view of the complexity of these high capacity printing systems, and the user interfaces provided for their operation and control, it is to be expected that fault conditions will occur in supply unit devices and output unit devices. Most present high capacity printing systems provide a graphical user interface that informs an operator of these faults as they occur, and provides instructive information in fault screen windows providing the operator with the information necessary to know what the fault condition is and also how to correct the fault condition.
While existing fault screen windows inform the operator of faults and set forth corrective information, they do not provide a means for an operator to enter notes or reminders about a fault. For example, a particular brand of paper may be jamming in a particular feeder and the present operator has no convenient or effective way of electronically passing this information on to a future operator in following shifts, or as a reminder to himself/herself for the next work day. One way to accomplish this task is to place a paper sticky note on the device or on the user interface where it will be readily accessible and visible, however, this method is inconvenient, easily overlooked and contributes to clutter in the printing system area.
Therefore, there is a need for a system and method by which an operator of a high capacity printing system can efficiently and easily make notes about recurring faults on the system. Further, there is a need that these notes be accessible in a user editable window on the graphical user interface of the printing system. It is further desirable that these notes be relevant to the specific device upon which the fault has occurred, or relevant to the system if no specific device is involved. There is also a need that a fault note icon is automatically associated with any fault or machine condition, serving as an eyecatch and access method whenever an operator has entered fault notes relevant to that condition.